Peter Brown is an American businessman, born and educated in England. He currently resides in New York City.

The Beatles

Brown was a personal assistant to Brian Epstein and The Beatles during the 1960s. He was a confidant to the Epstein family, and bore some resemblance to Brian in his looks and manner. (Their backgrounds were dissimilar; while Epstein's family were Jewish and affluent, Brown's family were Roman Catholic and lived modestly.) Brown was one of the few people to have direct contact with each Beatle, and know their daily whereabouts.

After Epstein's death, Brown assumed many of the day-to-day management duties Epstein had performed and helped set up their new company Apple Corps. He survived Allen Klein's initial gutting of Apple's staff at the personal request of The Beatles. He eventually left Apple on his own shortly after Allen Klein took over. He was also a board member of Apple Corps, the Beatles's company.

Brown was witness to both the weddings of Paul and Linda McCartney, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono, during 1969. Lennon immortalized Brown in a line from "The Ballad of John and Yoko" ("Peter Brown called to say 'You can make it OK, you can get married in Gibraltar near Spain'"), one of the last Beatles singles.

After the Beatles ended in 1970, Brown became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Robert Stigwood Organisation. In 1977, Brown formed the Entertainment Development Company. He also founded Brown & Powers, a public relations firm, in 1983, which later became Brown & Argus, and finally Brown Lloyd James in 1997.

Brown co-wrote (with author Stephen Gaines) a biography of the Beatles titled The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of The Beatles, which was published in 1983.

Career timeline

* 1964: Executive assistant to Brian Epstein; Director of NEMS Enterprises * 1967: Executive director of newly-formed Apple Corps; appointed General Manager of Beatles & Co. * 1971: President and CEO of the Robert Stigwood Organization US (RSO) * 1977: Formed The Entertainment Development Company * 1983: Published The Love You Make; formed Brown & Powers * 1994: Brown and Powers becomes Brown & Argus * 1997: Brown and Argus becomes Brown Lloyd James

Friday, August 07, 2009

Maureen Cleave is a journalist who worked for the London Evening News and London Evening Standard in the 1960s, conducting interviews with famous musicians of the era, including Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

An interview with Lennon published on 4 March 1966 achieved notoriety when Lennon was quoted as saying that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now."

Cleave was a personal friend of Lennon, and is sometimes credited with part of the lyrics of "A Hard Day's Night." The story goes that when Lennon first showed her the lyrics, she said that the line "But when I get home to you/ I find my tiredness is through/ and I feel alright" was weak, and suggested instead "[…] I find the things that you do/ will make me feel all right." She was also previously believed to be the inspiration for the Lennon song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"; however, Cleave said that in all her encounters with Lennon there was “no pass.”

At their Greenwich Village apartment, John records several demos of the song 'Luck Of The Irish'. The proceedings are privately captured on a black & white 'open-reel' Sony video recording machine. Several versions of the song find their way onto this 17-minute recording which is suitably titled Luck Of The Irish - A Videotape By John Reilly. The item shows John discussing how to spell the lyrics to the song, venting his anger at the way electrical currents and film running speeds vary between England and America and announcing that John and Yoko had friends coming to dinner tonight at 6 o'clock. The footage, in which John refers to himself as Sean O'Leaham and Yoko as Mrs. O'No No, ends with the couple listening to the finished version of the song.

Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was a social and political activist in the United States who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). Later he became a fugitive from the law, living under an alias and working as an environmentalist following a conviction for dealing cocaine.

Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in protests that led to violent confrontations with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale. The group was known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; when Seale's prosecution was separated from the others, they became known as the Chicago Seven.

Hoffman came to prominence in the 1960s, and continued practicing his activism in the 1970s, and has remained a symbol of the youth rebellion and radical activism of that era.

Early life and education

Hoffman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to John Hoffman and Florence Schamberg, who were of Jewish descent. Hoffman was raised in a middle class household, and was the oldest of three children. On June 3, 1954, the 17-year-old Hoffman landed his first arrest, being charged with driving without a license. This arrest resulted in his being expelled from his public high school, after which he attended Worcester Academy, graduating in 1955. He then enrolled in Brandeis University, completing his B.A. in American Studies in 1959. At Brandeis, he studied under professors such as noted psychologist Abraham Maslow, often considered the father of humanistic psychology. He later earned a master's degree in psychology from UC Berkeley.

Early protests

Prior to his days as a leading member of the Yippie movement, Hoffman was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organized "Liberty House", which sold items to support the Civil Rights Movement in the southern United States. During the Vietnam War, Hoffman was an anti-war activist, who used deliberately comical and theatrical tactics, such as organizing a mass demonstration in which over 50,000 people would attempt to use psychic energy to levitate The Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time the war in Vietnam would end. Hoffman's symbolic theatrics were successful at convincing many young people to become more active in the politics of the time.

Another one of Hoffman's well-known protests was on August 24, 1967, when he led members of the movement to the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The protesters threw fistfuls of dollars down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could. Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, metaphorically, that's what NYSE traders "were already doing." "We didn't call the press," wrote Hoffman, "at that time we really had no notion of anything called a media event." The press was quick to respond and by evening the event was reported around the world. Since that incident, the stock exchange has spent $20,000 to enclose the gallery with bulletproof glass.

Chicago Seven conspiracy trial

Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in anti-Vietnam War protests, which were met by a violent police response during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was among the group that came to be known as the Chicago Seven (originally known as the Chicago Eight), which included fellow Yippie Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, future California state senator Tom Hayden and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale (before his trial was severed from the others).

Presided over by Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to Abbie, which Abbie joked about throughout the trial), Abbie Hoffman's courtroom antics frequently grabbed the headlines; one day, defendants Hoffman and Rubin appeared in court dressed in judicial robes, while on another day, Hoffman was sworn in as a witness with his hand giving the finger. Judge Hoffman became the favorite courtroom target of the Chicago Seven defendants, who frequently would insult the judge to his face. Abbie Hoffman told Judge Hoffman "you are a 'shande fur de Goyim' [disgrace in front of the gentiles]. You would have served Hitler better." He later added that "your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room." Both Davis and Rubin told the Judge "this court is bullshit."

Hoffman and four of the others (Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden) were found guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. At sentencing, Hoffman suggested the judge try LSD and offered to set him up with "a dealer he knew in Florida" (the judge was known to be headed to Florida for a post-trial vacation). Each of the five was sentenced to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

However, all convictions were subsequently overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Controversy at Woodstock

At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman interrupted The Who's performance to attempt a protest speech against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, "I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison. . ." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, was adjusting his amp between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his right shoulder. Townshend ran with his Gibson S.G. and rammed it into Hoffman's upper middle back. Hoffman turned with mouth gaping, back arched with one hand trying to reach the injury as Townshend, disgruntled, put a hand in Hoffman's face and shoved him backwards to stage right. Townshend then said "I can dig it." The rest of the band looked at one another not sure what was going to happen next. Townshend, frustrated by the interruption, windmilled into the next song. The band regained composure and followed. After that song, Townshend walked over to Hoffman, who was sitting on the right hand side of stage with his arms around his knees. Townshend leaned over and said something to him then gave him a smack up behind the head. Townshend later said that while he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair's imprisonment, he would have knocked him offstage regardless of the content of his message, given that Hoffman had violated the "sanctity of the stage," i.e., the right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the actual show. The incident took place during a camera change, and was not captured on film. The audio of this incident, however, can be heard on the The Who's box set, Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2, Track 20, "Abbie Hoffman Incident").

According to Hoffman, in his autobiography, the incident played out like this:

If you ever heard about me in connection with the festival it was not for playing Florence Nightingale to the flower children. What you heard was the following: "Oh, him, yeah, didn't he grab the microphone, try to make a speech when Peter Townshend cracked him over the head with his guitar?" I've seen countless references to the incident, even a mammoth mural of the scene. What I've failed to find was a single photo of the incident. Why? Because it didn't really happen.

I grabbed the microphone all right and made a little speech about John Sinclair, who had just been sentenced to ten years in the Michigan State Penitentiary for giving two joints of grass to two undercover cops, and how we should take the strength we had at Woodstock home to free our brothers and sisters in jail. Something like that. Townshend, who had been tuning up, turned around and bumped into me. A nonincident really. Hundreds of photos and miles of film exist depicting the events on that stage, but none of this much-talked about scene.

In Woodstock Nation, Hoffman mentions the incident, and says he was on a bad LSD trip at the time.

Underground

In 1971, Hoffman published Steal This Book, which advised readers on how to live basically for free. Many of his readers followed Hoffman's advice and stole the book, leading many bookstores to refuse to carry it. He was also the author of several other books, including Vote!, co-written with Rubin and Ed Sanders. Hoffman was arrested in 1973 on drug charges for intent to sell and distribute cocaine. He always proclaimed that undercover police agents had entrapped him into a drug deal and planted suitcases of cocaine in his office. Hoffman subsequently skipped bail and hid from authorities for several years.

Despite being "in hiding" during part of this period living in Thousand Island Park, a private resort on Wellesley Island on the St. Lawrence River under the name "Barry Freed", he helped coordinate an environmental campaign to preserve the Saint Lawrence River (Save the River organization). In 1980, he surrendered to authorities and received a one-year sentence. On September 4, 1980, he appeared on 20/20 in an interview with Barbara Walters. During his time on the run, he was also the "travel" columnist for Crawdaddy! magazine.

In 1987, Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers wrote Steal this Urine Test, which exposed the internal contradictions of the War on Drugs and suggested ways to circumvent its most intrusive measures. He stated, for instance, that Federal Express, which receives high praise from management guru Tom Peters for "empowering" workers, in fact subjected most employees to random drug tests, firing any that got a positive result, with no retest or appeal procedure — despite the fact that FedEx had chosen a drug lab (the lowest bidder) with a proven record of frequent false positive results.

Back to visibility

In November 1986 Hoffman was arrested along with fourteen others, including Amy Carter, the daughter of former President Jimmy Carter, for trespassing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The charges stemmed from a protest against the Central Intelligence Agency's recruitment on the UMass campus. Since the university's policy limited campus recruitment to law-abiding organizations, Hoffman asserted in his defense the CIA's lawbreaking activities. The federal district court judge permitted expert witnesses, including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and a former CIA agent who testified about the CIA's illegal Contra war against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in violation of the Boland Amendment.

In three days of testimony, more than a dozen defense witnesses, including Daniel Ellsberg, Ramsey Clark, and former Contra leader Edgar Chamorro, described the CIA's role in more than two decades of covert, illegal and often violent activities. In his closing argument, Hoffman, acting as his own attorney, placed his actions within the best tradition of American civil disobedience. He quoted from Thomas Paine, "the most outspoken and farsighted of the leaders of the American Revolution": "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow."

As Hoffman concluded: "Thomas Paine was talking about this spring day in this courtroom. A verdict of not guilty will say, 'When our country is right, keep it right; but when it is wrong, right those wrongs.'" On April 15, 1987, the jury found Hoffman and the other defendants not guilty.

After being found not guilty, Hoffman prepared for a cameo appearance in Oliver Stone's anti-Vietnam War movie, Born on the Fourth of July. He essentially played himself in the movie, waving a flag on the ramparts of an administration building during a campus protest that was being teargassed and crushed by state troopers.

The movie was released on December 20, 1989, more than eight months after Hoffman's suicide on April 12, 1989. At the time of his death, Hoffman was at the height of a renewed public visibility, one of the few '60s radicals who still commanded the attention of all kinds of mass media. He regularly lectured audiences about the CIA's covert activities, including assassinations disguised as suicides. His Playboy article (October, 1988) outlining the connections that constitute the "October Surprise" brought that alleged conspiracy to the attention of a wide-ranging American readership for the first time.

Personal life

In 1960, Hoffman married Sheila Karklin, and they had two children: Andrew (b. 1960) and Amy (1962-2007), who would later go by the name Ilya. They divorced in 1966.

In 1967, Hoffman married Anita Kushner. They had one child, america Hoffman, deliberately named using a lowercase "a" to indicate both patriotism and non-jingoistic intent (america later took the name Alan). Although Abbie and Anita were effectively separated after Abbie became a fugitive starting in 1973 and he subsequently fell in love with Johanna Lawrenson in 1974 while a fugitive, they were not formally divorced until 1980.

His personal life drew a great deal of scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. By their own admission, they kept a file on him that was 13,262 pages long.

Death

Hoffman was 52 at the time of his death on April 12, 1989, which was caused by swallowing 150 Phenobarbital tablets. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1980; while he had recently changed treatment medications, he had claimed in public to have been upset about his elderly mother, Florence's, cancer diagnosis (Jezer, 1993). Hoffman's body had been found in his apartment in a converted turkey coop on Sugan Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, near New Hope, Pennsylvania. At the time of his death, he was surrounded by about 200 pages of his own handwritten notes, many about his own moods.

His death was officially ruled a suicide, but many who knew him believed that the overdose had been accidental. As reported by The New York Times, "Among the more vocal doubters at the service today was Mr. Dellinger, who said, 'I don't believe for one moment the suicide thing.' He said he had been in fairly frequent touch with Mr. Hoffman, who had 'numerous plans for the future.'"

A week after Hoffman's death, one thousand friends and relatives gathered for a memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts at Temple Emanuel, the synagogue he had attended as a child. Senior Rabbi Norman Mendel officiated. Two of his colleagues from the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial were there: David Dellinger and Jerry Rubin, Hoffman's co-founder of the Yippies, by then a businessman.

As The New York Times reported: "Indeed, most of the mourners who attended the formal memorial at Temple Emanuel here were more yuppie than yippie and there were more rep ties than ripped jeans among the crowd…."

The Times report continued:

Bill Walton, the radical Celtic of basketball renown, told of a puckish Abbie, then underground evading a cocaine charge in the '70s, leaping from the shadows on a New York street to give him an impromptu basketball lesson after a loss to the Knicks. 'Abbie was not a fugitive from justice,' said Mr. Walton. 'Justice was a fugitive from him.' On a more traditional note, Rabbi Norman Mendell said in his eulogy that Mr. Hoffman's long history of protest, antic though much of it had been, was 'in the Jewish prophetic tradition, which is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.'

He was posthumously awarded the Courage of Conscience award September 26, 1992.

Portrayals

Hoffman's life was dramatized in the 2000 film Steal This Movie, in which he was portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio.

In the 1975 work The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Hoffman briefly appears, having a discussion with Apollonius of Tyana.

In the 1987 HBO television movie Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8, Hoffman was portrayed by Michael Lembeck.

He was portrayed by Richard D'Alessandro in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump speaking against "the war in Viet-fucking-nam" at a protest rally at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool facing the Washington Monument.

Hank Azaria's voice is heard as the animated Hoffman in the film Chicago 10.

Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Hoffman in the film The Trial of the Chicago Seven.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Ray Connolly (born 1941 in Lancashire) is an English novelist, screenwriter and journalist.

He is perhaps best known for writing the screenplays for the films That’ll Be the Day and the sequel Stardust and for his biography of John Lennon who he was waiting to interview when he died.

He was born and brought up in Lancashire and attended the London School of Economics where Mick Jagger was a fellow student and he read social anthropology. He then interviewed sixties pop stars for the London Evening Standard.

He has written numerous newspaper articles for The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Observer.

In addition to his biography John Lennon 1940-1980 he wrote the introduction to The Beatles Complete Songbook and The Compleat Elvis.

His novels include Girl Who Came To Stay, Sunday Morning, Shadows On A Wall and most recently Love Out Of Season.

He also wrote and directed the feature length documentary entitled James Dean: The First American Teenager and his television scripts have included Lytton's Diary and Perfect Scoundrels.

You just showed me what might be the front and back album photos for the record you're putting out of the music you and Yoko composed for your film Two Virgins. The photos have the simplicity of a daguerreotype. . . .

Well, that's because I took it. I'm a ham photographer, you know. It's me Nikon what I was given by a commercially minded Japanese when we were in Japan, along with me Pentax, me Canon, me boom-boom and all the others. So I just set it up and did it.

For the cover, there's a photo of you and Yoko standing naked facing the camera. And on the backside are your backsides. What do you think people are going to think of the cover?

Well, we've got that to come. The thing is, I started it with a pure . . . it was the truth, and it was only after I'd got into it and done it and looked at it that I'd realized what kind of scene I was going to create. And then suddenly, there it was, and then suddenly you show it to people and then you know what the world's going to do to you, or try to do. But you have no knowledge of it when you conceive it or make it. Originally, I was going to record Yoko, and I thought the best picture of her for an album would be her naked. I was just going to record her as an artist. We were only on those kind of terms then. So after that, we got together, it just seemed natural for us, if we made an album together, for both of us to be naked. Of course, I've never seen me prick on an album or on a photo before: "Whatnearth, there's a fellow with his prick out." And that was the first time I realized me prick was out, you know. I mean, you can see it on the photo itself - we're naked in front of a camera - that comes over in the eyes, just for a minute you go!! I mean, you're not used to it, being naked, but it's got to come out.

How do you face the fact that people are going to mutilate you?

Well, I can take that as long as we can get the cover out. And I really don't know what the chances are of that.

You don't worry about the nuts across the street?

No, no. I know it won't be very comfortable walking around with all the lorry drivers whistling and that, but it'll all die. Next year it'll be nothing, like miniskirts or bare tits. It isn't anything. We're all naked really. When people attack Yoko and me, we know they're paranoiac. We don't worry too much. It's the ones that don't know, and you know they don't know - they're just going round in a blue fuzz. The thing is, the album also says: Look, lay off will you? It's two people - what have we done?

Lenny Bruce once compared himself to a doctor, saying that if people weren't sick, there wouldn't be any need for him.

That's the bit, isn't it? Since we started being more natural in public - the four of us - we've really had a lot of knocking. I mean, we're always natural. I mean, you can't help it. We couldn't have been where we are if we hadn't done that. We wouldn't have been us either. And it took four of us to enable us to do it; we couldn't have done it alone and kept that up. I don't know why I get knocked more often. I seem to open me mouth more often, something happens, I forget what I am till it all happens again. I mean, we just get knocked - from the underground, the pop world - me personally. They're all doing it. They've got to stop soon.

Couldn't you go off to your own community and not be bothered with all of this?

Well, it's just the same there, you see. India was a bit of that, it was a taste of it - it's the same. So there's a small community, it's the same gig, it's relative. There's no escape.

Your show at the Fraser Gallery gave critics a chance to take a swipe at you.

Oh, right, but putting it on was taking a swipe at them in a way. I mean, that's what it was about. What they couldn't understand was that - a lot of them were saying, well, if it hadn't been for John Lennon nobody would have gone to it, but as it was, it was me doing it. And if it had been Sam Bloggs it would have been nice. But the point of it was - it was me. And they're using that as a reason to say why it didn't work. Work as what?

Do you think Yoko's film of you smiling would work if it were just anyone smiling?

Yes, it works with somebody else smiling, but she went through all this. It originally started out that she wanted a million people all over the world to send in a snapshot of themselves smiling, and then it got down to lots of people smiling, and then maybe one or two and then me smiling as a symbol of today smiling - and that's what I am, whatever that means. And so it's me smiling, and that's the hang-up, of course, because it's me again. But they've got to see it someday - it's only me. I don't mind if people go to the film to see me smiling because it doesn't matter, it's not harmful. The idea of the film won't really be dug for another fifty or a hundred years probably. That's what it's all about. I just happen to be that face.

It's too bad people can't come down here individually to see how you're living.

Well, that's it. I didn't see Ringo and his wife for about a month when I first got together with Yoko, and there were rumors going around about the film and all that. Maureen was saying she really had some strange ideas about where we were at and what we were up to. And there were some strange reactions from all me friends and at Apple about Yoko and me and what we were doing - "Have they gone mad?" But of course it was just us, you know, and if they are puzzled or reacting strangely to us two being together and doing what we're doing, it's not hard to visualize the rest of the world really having some amazing image.

International Times recently published an interview with Jean-Luc Godard . . .

Oh yeah, right, he said we should do something. Now that's sour grapes from a man who couldn't get us to be in his film [One Plus One, in which the Stones appear], and I don't expect it from people like that. Dear Mr. Godard, just because we didn't want to be in the film with you, it doesn't mean to say that we aren't doing any more than you. We should do whatever we're all doing.

But Godard put it in activist political terms. He said that people with influence and money should be trying to blow up the establishment and that you weren't.

What's he think we're doing? He wants to stop looking at his own films and look around.

Time magazine came out and said, look, the Beatles say "no" to destruction.

There's no point in dropping out because it's the same there and it's got to change. But I think it all comes down to changing your head and, sure, I know that's a cliché.

What would you tell a black-power guy who's changed his head and then finds a wall there all the time?

Well, I can't tell him anything 'cause he's got to do it himself. If destruction's the only way he can do it, there's nothing I can say that could influence him 'cause that's where he's at, really. We've all got that in us, too, and that's why I did the "Out and In" bit on a few takes and in the TV version of "Revolution" - "Destruction, well, you know, you can count me out, and in," like yin and yang. I prefer "out." But we've got the other bit in us. I don't know what I'd be doing if I was in his position. I don't think I'd be so meek and mild. I just don't know.

Edward Hunter Davies (born 7 January 1936) is a prolific British author, journalist and broadcaster, perhaps best known for writing the only authorized biography of The Beatles.

Early life

Davies was born in Johnstone in Scotland to Scottish parents. He considers himself Scottish. For 4 years his family lived in Dumfries until Davies was aged 11. Davies has frequently quoted his boyhood hero as being football center-forward, Billy Houliston, of Davies' then local team, Queen of the South.

His family moved to Carlisle when Davies was 11 and he attended the Creighton School in the city. Davies lived in Carlisle until he moved to study at university. During this time his father, who was a former RAF pay clerk, developed multiple sclerosis and had to retire on medical grounds from a civil service career. Davies joined the sixth form at Carlisle Grammar School and was awarded a place at University College, Durham to read for an Honours Degree in History, but after his first year he switched to a general arts course. He gained his first writing experience as a student, contributing to the university newspaper, Palatinate. However after completing his degree course he stayed on at Durham for another year to gain a teaching diploma.

Writing career

After he left university Davies worked as a journalist and in 1965 he wrote the novel Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush that was quickly made into a film. He raised the idea of a biography of The Beatles with Paul McCartney when he met him to discuss the possibility of providing the theme song for the film. McCartney liked the idea of the book and advised him to obtain the approval of Brian Epstein. He agreed to it and the resulting authorized biography was published in 1968. John Lennon mentioned in his 1971 Rolling Stone interview that he felt the book was "bullshit."

In 1972 he wrote what is widely regarded as one of the best ever books about football, The Glory Game, a behind the scenes portrait of Tottenham Hotspur. He also wrote a wry column in Punch called "Father's Day". In 1974 he was sent by the Sunday Times to look at a comprehensive school in action. He wrote three articles and then stayed on at the school – Creighton School in Muswell Hill, North London, now part of Fortismere School – to watch and study through a year in its life. The result was a book, the Creighton Report, published in 1976.

Davies has also written a biography of the hill walker Alfred Wainwright, and many works about the topography and history of the Lake District.

In children's literature, he has written the "Ossie," "Flossie Teacake" and "Snotty Bumstead" series of novels.

As a ghostwriter, he has worked on the autobiographies of footballers Wayne Rooney, Paul Gascoigne and Dwight Yorke. The Wayne Rooney biography led to a successful libel action in 2008 by David Moyes, the manager of his former club, Everton. Moyes magnanimously donated the awarded six figure damages to the club's charity. He has also ghostwritten politician John Prescott's 2008 autobiography, Prezza, My Story: Pulling no Punches.

He writes a football column for the New Statesman magazine which is written in his trademark humorous, irreverent tone. A compilation of these articles was released as a book, The Fan, in 2005 by Pomona Press. Davies writes "Confessions of a Collector" in The Guardian's Weekend color magazine.

Football fan

Hunter Davies has regularly stated that the first football team he supported was when he lived in Dumfries, Queen of the South F.C.

From moving to Carlisle aged 11, Davies next adopted English Football League club Carlisle United F.C. He is Vice President of the Carlisle United Supporters Club London Branch. Long time resident in London, Davies' third adopted team is Tottenham Hotspur. In international football Hunter Davies supports Scotland.

Personal life

Davies is married to the writer Margaret Forster and their daughter Caitlin Davies is also an author. He is also a keen collector.

* The Other Half * The New London Spy * The Rise and Fall of Jake Sullivan * I Knew Daisy Smuten * A Very Loving Couple * Body Change * A Walk Along the Wall * George Stephenson * William Wordsworth * The Grades * Father's Day * A Walk Along the Tracks * Great Britain: A Celebration * Flossie Teacake's Fur Coat * Snotty Bumstead Collection * A Walk Around London's Parks * A Good Guide to the Lakes * The Joy of Stamps * Back in the U.S.S.R. * Beatrix Potter's Lakeland * My Life in Football * In Search of Columbus * Striker * Hunting People * The Teller of Tales * Living on the Lottery * Born 1900: A Human History of the Twentieth Century - For Everyone Who Was There.

As we live a life of easeEveryone of us (everyone of us) has all we need (has all we need)Sky of blue (sky of blue) and sea of green (sea of green)In our yellow (in our yellow) submarine (submarine - ah ha!)

We all live in a yellow submarineA yellow submarine, a yellow submarine.We all live in a yellow submarineA yellow submarine, yellow submarine.We all live in a yellow submarineYellow submarine, yellow submarine.We all live in a yellow submarineYellow submarine, yellow submarine.

John and Yoko had a 51-minute meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, in Ottawa. Trudeau had earlier said: "I don't know about acorns, but if he's around, I'd like to meet him. He's a good poet." Afterwards John said: "We spent about 50 minutes together, which was longer than he had spent with any head of state. If all politicians were like Trudeau there would be world peace."

Sunday, August 02, 2009

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slideWhere I stop and I turn and I go for a rideTill I get to the bottom and I see you again - yeah, yeah, yeah.

A - do you, don't you want me to love you?I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above youTell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answerWell, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer.(Helter skelter, helter skelter)

Helter skelter, helter skelter, helter skelter - yeah.

Wuh!

A - will you, won't you want me to make you?I'm coming down fast but don't let me break youTell me, tell me, tell me the answer'cos you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer.(Helter skelter, helter skelter)

Look out helter skelter, helter skelter, helter skelter - oh.

Look out 'cos here she comes (heh heh heh).

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slideAnd I stop and I turn and I go for a rideAnd I get to the bottom and I see you again - yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, do you, don't you want me to make you?I'm coming down fast but don't let me break youTell me, tell me, tell me your answer'cos you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer.(Helter skelter, helter skelter)

Look out helter skelter, helter skelter, helter skelter.

Well, look out helter skelter.She's coming down fastYes she is, yes she is.Coming down fast (oh can you hear me speaking - ooo)...

Geoffrey Emerick (born 1946 in London) is a recording studio audio engineer, who is best known for his work with the Beatles' albums Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road.

Emerick first started working at EMI at the age of 15, as a assistant to Norman Smith. However the first album he did with the Beatles working as main recording engineer was Revolver, and "Tomorrow Never Knows" was the first track he worked on, after having taken over the engineering duties from Norman Smith who became a producer.

It was Emerick's innovation to record John Lennon's vocal through a Leslie speaker on that song, to get the ethereal sound Lennon wanted. He received Grammy Awards for the engineering of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. Emerick, like Beatles producer George Martin, brought an adventurous and experimental attitude to his work.

His post-Beatles career included work with Paul McCartney (including Band On The Run [which netted Emerick another Grammy], London Town, and Flaming Pie), Elvis Costello (for whom he produced Imperial Bedroom and All This Useless Beauty), Art Garfunkel, America, Supertramp, Cheap Trick, Nazareth, Split Enz, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ultravox, Matthew Fisher's first solo album "Journey's End," and Jeff Beck, as well as Nellie McKay's critically acclaimed 2004 debut CD Get Away from Me. He was the sound engineer on Robin Trower's most popular album Bridge of Sighs, and credited by both Trower and producer Matthew Fisher for that album's acclaimed sound.

In 2003, he received his fourth Grammy, this time for lifetime Technical Achievement.

On the April 3, 2007 it was announced that Emerick would be in charge of a re-recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by contemporary artists, including Oasis, The Killers, Travis and Razorlight. Emerick used the original equipment to record the new versions of the songs, and the results were broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on the June 2, marking the album's 40th anniversary.

This video shows a series of clips related to Ringo's sessions with producer Chips Moman in 1987. First, the pair record a video tribute for guitarist Pete Drake; then, Moman stages a protest against a local newspaper in support of Ringo, in hopes of bringing him back to finish the album. The paper had published an article by Rheta Grimsley Johnson which read in part: "The other three Beatles were not just better looking; they were accomplished musicians. Ringo's songs were comic relief...an aging Beatle is yesterday's news." Ringo never finished the album and two years later successfully obtained an injunction against the album's release. Ringo recalled of the sessions: "We would send out for wine or else there would be tequila there or cognac or whatever anybody else felt like drinking. There was always plenty of alcohol on the premises. Certain nights we were all under the influence..."